The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
During the testing of a vehicle, it is common to use a dynamometer to measure the performance of the vehicle's drivetrain. In order to secure the driven wheels of the vehicle in place on the dynamometer, one or more chocks may be used to prevent the non-driven wheels of the vehicle from moving, thereby keeping the vehicle in position on the dynamometer.
Conventional chocks can be cumbersome to position and secure to the vehicle and the dynamometer. For example, it is common to use four individual chocks to prevent the non-driven wheels from moving during testing. Given that each chock may have a mass up to approximately 50 kg, manual handling of the chocks can be difficult.
It is common practice to reconfigure a dynamometer test rig between testing front and rear wheel drive vehicles. In particular, the chocks can block access to a test bed of the dynamometer, which makes it difficult to swap vehicles between tests. In order to reconfigure the test rig, the chocks can be moved and re-secured, which can increase the length of time taken to reconfigure the test rig.
In some circumstances, the test rig may have a tow-eye post, which can be used in addition to the chocks to help secure the vehicle to the test rig by strapping or chaining the tow eye of the vehicle to the test rig. Another issue is that the tow-eye post can reduce accessibility when moving the dynamometer and/or the vehicle around the test rig. Further, the tow-eye post may be redundant during the testing of some vehicles.